


Plans

by wafflelate



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:41:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26656798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/pseuds/wafflelate
Summary: Izuna thinks someone needs to watch Tobirama. Madara decides looking at Tobirama more is no hardship.
Relationships: Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara
Comments: 8
Kudos: 264
Collections: r/NarutoFanfiction Gift Exchange





	Plans

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xwannaflyx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xwannaflyx/gifts).



"I know you won't hear a word against Hashirama," Izuna says to him one morning, "but you have to admit that that bastard has it out for us. We can't trust anything about the Senju's village if he's the one planning it." 

Very patiently, Madara reminds him: "It's _our_ village." 

"Then why aren't we involved in deciding anything about it?" Izuna shoots back. 

It's too early in the morning for yet another argument with Izuna, especially over something like this. Izuna is mostly exaggerating the problem. There have been weeks and weeks of meetings, after all. They had planned, re-planned, suggested and vetoed, had a hand in nearly every major decision. 

Izuna's _real_ issue is that Senju Tobirama is overseeing most of the actual details of the village. The road layout and waste management, the structure of the necessary government departments, and even the archive's filing system. They're going to user buildings, lesson plans, and procedures conceived of start to finish by Tobirama and Izuna hates it. 

"If you think more Uchiha input is needed, go work with Tobirama," Madara suggests. 

The look Izuna gives him is bitter and offended, as if Madara has suggested he might enjoy rolling around in animal droppings."You go," he suggests, likely thinking Madara definitely won't. 

But Madara does. 

* * *

Hashirama has built a temporary administration building near where the permanent tower is to be constructed. Tobirama's office space is there, piled high with scrolls and maps and notes and diagrams. 

Tobirama himself looks exhausted, but when Madara enters he gives a slow, tired blink and sets aside what he's been working on to focus on Madara. "What do you need?" he asks quietly. 

"Nothing specific," Madara admits after a moment of hesitation. He should probably have thought of something on his way over. 

A frown tugs at the corner of Tobirama's mouth. "Well. Come back when you think of something." He looks back down at his work, the late morning sun spilling just so over his hair and his shoulders, lighting him like a work of art. 

* * *

"The school you were talking about," Madara says later that day when he enters Tobirama's office. Tobirama is looking even more tired than before and Madara thinks that the amount of paper on his desk has doubled. It means there's really no good place to put down the food he brought, so he just holds it awkwardly. 

Tobirama's face is a study in displeasure. "What about it." 

"I want to see the plans." 

"There aren't any,." Tobirama looks away, dismissing him, and reaching for a scroll in a move transparently meant to give him anything to focus on besides what Madara wants to talk about, 

"Why?" Madara pushes. 

"Hashirama won't make it mandatory," Tobirama says sourly, "so no one will dare send their children to it. We'll have to shelf it for now." 

The village is for the children. The children need to be taught. Tobirama had spoken only briefly about the village's children needing to train together, learn all of the same basics, and stay in school long enough to have a chance of surviving, but he had been _passionate_ about it. It hadn't been cold calculation or pragmatism but genuine, well-meant ambition. 

It had been the first time Madara thought someone besides he and Hashirama could really see what the village could become. 

Madara holds the food with one hand and starts shiting the papers on Tobirama's desk so that he can set the food down. "I still want to hear," he says, keeping his voice careful and a little coaxing. 

Senju Tobirama always kind of reminds him of a cornered animal, ready to lash out. 

"What's that," Tobirama says of the food, ducking the topic. 

"Lunch," Madara says. "You need to eat." 

"I eat just fine." 

"You _don't_." Madara starts opening the food. He'll portion out Tobirama's share and force it into the other man's hands if he has to — _someone_ needs to do it, and Hashirama is evidently too busy to do so. 

Not that Hashirama doesn't have plenty of reason to be busy, of course, but even Madara can tell that Tobirama has lost weight. Discrete inquiries had revealed that Tobirama is only going home one night in three. 

It's obvious that, despite what Izuna thinks, Tobirama doesn't need any Uchiha oversight for his plans for the village. But he does probably need someone to make sure he doesn't kill himself trying to do everything on his own as soon as possible, and Madara is happy to step in. 


End file.
